Lyndahere And Why We Are Here...In the beginning update.

This is the story of an American woman LyndaHere (@lyndahere on Twitter) following a Canadian musician/singer Alan Doyle and the band he plays with Great Big Sea from Newfoundland. It is a story of a woman who has followed the singer/musician and the band for over 12 years writing, photographing and filming about her efforts with little regard for the privacy and rights of the singer/musician and band or the integrity of their work. The aim of this page originally was to raise awareness of music piracy, stalking or “criminal harassment” laws, copyright and privacy laws in Canada, and to raise awareness of the obsessive fan behaviour associated with Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea and other celebrities in Canada. Hopefully Canadian news and current affairs shows will also pick up this research and do stories to raise awareness of some the issues facing their artists around the world.

My first introduction to Great Big Sea was through the Australian actor Russell Crowe. I followed Russell Crowe on Twitter and he regularly talked about the Canadian band Great Big Sea and the singer/musician Alan Doyle. The movie Robin Hood introduced me to the brilliance of Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea. To be honest I fell in love with them through watching illegally recorded videos on Youtube and most probably those of Lyndahere. I saw an illegally downloaded recording of the song ‘Where I Belong’ by Alan Doyle about his native Newfoundland and I was a fan. I have since brought albums, gone to concerts and met the members of the band. I also listen to other Canadian bands such the Barenaked Ladies and The Once Band and a range of other music.





But for every fan like me won through illegally recorded poor quality homemade videos how many are lost and how much money do artists lose. I don’t particular enjoy videos of live recordings where women scream and talk and love the sound of their own voice more than the artists they pay to watch. They continually breakdown and the sound is poor and I am out of there. I have become fussy about what I watch with limited time and money. It is has only recently that I have begun to gravel with the moral and ethical implications and the impact that illegally recorded videos can have on creative artists including financial lose. It is not just financial lose but spending time away from their family and their children as they have to travel more. In my research I found that Canadians are the biggest computer pirates in the world. The fact that Canadians are among the biggest computer pirates in the world downloading billions of dollars of illegal material including music makes Great Big Sea’s success with traditional music more remarkable.

In the seven months since I started this blog I have read a lot articles on the Internet, books and viewed other sources. They have included information on subjects that arise for example ticket scalping, trading in bootlegged material, cyberbullying, blogging, the paparazzi and others stated in the original introduction on music piracy, copyright and stalking. I have also included some responses to posts on Twitter from Lyndahere.

I have recently started reading research articles on celebrity worship syndrome and different types of fan behaviour including trolling, fandom, groupie behaviour, bootlegging in the movies, and phone hacking. Some topics for example, how musicians communicate with fans via social media such as Facebook were started and I have to return. I have also explored a range of resources including songs, photographs and some very old yet fascinating articles from magazines like the Rolling Stone, Time and the New York Times that provide a historical context for examining fan behaviour. Recently a range of rock and roll stars have released their biographies which provide a look at fan behaviour from their point of view some of which I am currently reading.

The topics are endless as well as fascinating. While the initial blog was started to raise awareness of negative fan behaviour it has extended way beyond that. It has extended way beyond the fan behaviour of Lyndahere with her words and actions inspiring further research only for me to find that she is part of range of people who are involved in my opinion a range of behaviour not always positive towards musicians and celebrities they profess to love. I want this story on the record.

In the ten months I have written this blog the philosophy of what I wanted to write about has changed as I have explored music piracy and in particular bootlegging. I believe it is okay to video record some songs in a performance for personal use or to put them on Youtube. I have seen many fine bootlegged videos by fans on Youtube. What I disagree with is the same person travelling around filming entire concerts and putting them up on Youtube week after week without getting a license or permission from the musicians and artists concerned and with little regard for the content or quality of the video. I don't believe putting bootlegged videos in competition to concerts professionally filmed for specials and promotions presents any musician or artist in the best possible light no matter what the reasoning is. I believe in educating people about what they are watching and working towards a sustainable music future for the musicians and artists themselves and the fans. I hope this blog has achieved this in particular educating and raising awareness about music piracy. Thankyou to all the people who visit the blog.


Oh...and nothing replaces seeing a band live...in particular my favourite group of Canadian guys Great Big Sea...


Liz Smith Great Big Sea Fan

Lyndahere On The Road The First Leg Of GBS XX In Tweets...

This is the diary of Lyndahere’s (@Lyndahere) first leg on the road stalking Great Big Sea on their XX tour throughout America and Canada from Twitter. I did not include the domestic issues such catching planes, hotel reservations and the bout of food poisoning but those associated with the GBS including sending photos and videos. To the best of my knowledge she only missed one show in Regina Canada.

A new fan tweeted her about going to the concerts. She explained how she hoped to get some good pictures. Lyndahere’s response was “Pictures are very nice, but it's the show itself that's spectacular and unforgettable”. Now if she did not get her favourite position in front of Alan Doyle for videos and photographs there would be hell to pay. There would be hell to pay for anyone who tried to stop her taking photographs and videos. She is neither encouraging nor gracious to anyone in particular to a woman who takes photographs or videos at Great Big Sea concerts.

I found the last picture she placed on Twitter distressing in which she describes Alan Doyle rushing at her. I find most of her videos and photographs distressing. If I were a performer I wouldn’t like someone following me around taking photos and videos 24/7 at every performance unless they were someone I paid, was skilled and knew what I wanted. I was not there so I don’t know how this photo occurred. But if she is interfering and affecting the performance by placing her need to take photographs and videos of some she professes to love, admire and wants what is best for them over their need to perform and express themselves that is not love but selfishness.

@alanthomasdoyle Could be my fave pic ever of you. This is not zoomed. You came rushing so fast - it was wonderful: 

Lynda@LyndaHere 24 Mar @alanthomasdoyle It's never been about Either/Or, Alan. It's always been about More. And about You. Well done 1st tour leg.

Lynda@LyndaHere 24 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Can't wait to catch the Movie Network broadcast. The trailer sure looks great. Well done, Alan.

Lynda@LyndaHere 24 Mar Done. Into YYT 21 hours later than planned and one Dr.'s appointment needs to re-schedule. But other than that, could be so much worser.

Lynda@LyndaHere 24 Mar Flight re-booked (God bless @AirCanada's diligent little buttons). Now to get the new shuttle and hotel worked out. Could be worser.

Lynda@LyndaHere 25 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle Could be my fave pic ever of you. This is not zoomed. You came rushing so fast - it was wonderful: pic.twitter.com/9Chj9DzI5C

Lynda@LyndaHere 22 Mar @alanthomasdoyle I may not genuflect but I'll cheer for you till the end of time. Under the right circumstances I might genuflect too.

Lynda@LyndaHere 22 Mar @alanthomasdoyle And now I am singing "Genuflect! Genuflect! Genuflect!" Vatican Rag and all.

Lynda@LyndaHere 22 Mar @alanthomasdoyle That's an awfully cute face there in the foreground. Lovely view all around. Now drink some water - we're at 5400 ft/1650m.

Lynda@LyndaHere 22 Mar Perfect @Great_Big_Sea encore @ Chicago's HOB @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean @krismacdrum @murrayfoster1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuV7cHe1OC8 …

Lynda@LyndaHere 21 Mar @queenofstout Food poisoning. Not dead yet. Just resting.

Lynda@LyndaHere 21 Mar Food, food, food. First since yesterday morning. Must be getting better.

Lynda@LyndaHere 21 Mar @alanthomasdoyle HOB FR was typically thought-provoking. Same likely to be true of Boulder. "Come see GBS - they make you think". PR motto?

Lynda@LyndaHere 21 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Thinking much today about Celebrity & Harmlessness, Reality & Make-Believe. Not in a bad way. A bit sad, maybe, but not bad

Lynda@LyndaHere 21 Mar Hello, Omaha. Thank you for the early check-in, Omaha Hotel. It's nap time.

Lynda@LyndaHere 21 Mar @barbekresla @GBSIndyFan HOB's off the hook this time. Got sick before I got to Chicago. St. Paul Brew Co. or MSP Arby's likely suspects.

Lynda@LyndaHere 20 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Wonderful news, Alan. Finally - it's been a long wait. We shall have to ensure that @ChristinaTownie has/gets Movie Network

Lynda@LyndaHere 20 Mar Hope you sell out your fave US venue tonight ?RT @alanthomasdoyle I love Chicago. GBS XX Tour at The House of Blues Tonight. Come on down.

Lynda@LyndaHere 20 Mar Life would be immeasurably easier with a bit less awareness of what constitutes The Right Thing To Do and much less need to actually do it.

Lynda@LyndaHere 19 Mar Throughly enjoyable walkabout through St. Paul's Skyway. Nice people un-losing the lost at every turn. But sad to see so many closed shops.

Lynda@LyndaHere 19 Mar @tjcb1420 It'll be worth it. I promise. Pictures are very nice, but it's the show itself that's spectacular and unforgettable.

Lynda@LyndaHere 19 Mar @tjcb1420 No need to apologise, Tammy. Enthusiastic fans are what all bands want.

Lynda@LyndaHere 19 Mar @tjcb1420 It sold out in about an hour when it was offered before the XX Tour began.

Lynda@LyndaHere 19 Mar @tjcb1420 Hi, Tammy -They've been doing official meet/greets w. fans who purchased the Limited Edition Box Set. The rest is chance encounter

Lynda@LyndaHere 19 Mar Come all ye friends: The Tale (& the Head) of Charlie Horse @jtyke & @alanthomasdoyle from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pKW37JSBaI … to http://on.fb.me/15lrf89

Lynda?@LyndaHere 18 Mar Was re-booked on flight that got cancelled before WPG flight landed. Toronto, I am in you tonight. Sigh. St. Paul tomorrow. I hope.

Lynda@LyndaHere 18 Mar Finally in YYZ. And re-booked on God only knows what flight.

Lynda@LyndaHere 18 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea, Paddy's Day WPG: @greatbigsean's Danny Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XVz3Tacc1Y … & @alanthomasdoyle's Molly Malone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zqT1ysLonI …

Lynda@LyndaHere 17 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Hey, tonight you're back where you were given your uber-cool Rock Star guitar strap: pic.twitter.com/X4OEjz6EpM

Lynda@LyndaHere 17 Mar Live This Life, Calgary Show #2 @Great_Big_Sea @greatbigsean @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @krismacdrum @murrayfoster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujTLb2MN9oY …

Lynda@LyndaHere 17 Mar @alanthomasdoyle I'd hazard a guess that Saskatchewan loves you too. As well she should.

Lynda@LyndaHere 16 Mar Just went for a brisk outing along the WPG Skywalk. Now chilling the Dos Equis on the balcony. My big Sat. night: Writing, videos, photos.

Lynda@LyndaHere 16 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Just as frigid here in WPG today, but with no you to heat it up until tomorrow. Fortunate Regina tonight. Have a great one!

Lynda@LyndaHere 15 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle @Great_Big_Sea @jtyke Alan The Stallion or "I'm feeling a bit 'horse' tonight" or "Save a cowboy": pic.twitter.com/kT1dop5Jtw

Lynda@LyndaHere 15 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Still Awesome Alan. See you in Winnipeg.

Lynda@LyndaHere 15 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle @Great_Big_Sea From the first Edmonton Jubilee XX show, Something Beautiful, a song of Hope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoj5r73fDfA …

Lynda@LyndaHere 14 Mar Coming to the second Jubilee Auditorium on a tour is like Deja Vu all over again. Identical.

Lynda@LyndaHere 14 Mar Favourite @Great_Big_Sea XX shows moment: A self-deprecatingly thoughtful @alanthomasdoyle discusses his 1st GBS tune pic.twitter.com/yjB0JDpF6V

Lynda@LyndaHere 14 Mar Gonna be a great show! RT @alanthomasdoyle A few single seats left for the GBS XX Calgary Jube shows. Come on. Lets Sell these puppies out!

Lynda@LyndaHere 14 Mar @alanthomasdoyle You could always come tomorrow night. Make that tonight. Thursday night. Calgary. Gets confusing, doesn't it? Sweet dreams.

Lynda@LyndaHere 13 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle Perhaps not the Pope but for sure the Rock Star Guitar God, times 2. Then & now. And always, Alan. pic.twitter.com/8FX6xAEPv7

Lynda@LyndaHere 13 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Oh Yeah. Can't wait. I know you can't either. :-)

Lynda@LyndaHere 13 Mar @alanthomasdoyle 12 to 9:30 for me. Amazing. Longest sleep in about 6 months. Aim for the stars.

Lynda@LyndaHere 12 Mar In the continuing tussle between Calgary & Edmonton, I've always been partial to YEG. Tonight's GBS XX show makes me more so. Until Calgary.

Lynda@LyndaHere 12 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle Your face tells the story - of the Vancouver show, of 20 GBS years, and of You. I love that story. pic.twitter.com/RdseC8IFbf

Lynda@LyndaHere 12 Mar Unexpectedly perfect @Great_Big_Sea 20th Anniv. Eve encore song in YVR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41u7fcnEz7o … @alanthomasdoyle @greatbigsean @bobhallett

Lynda@LyndaHere 11 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Can't stop thinking about 26 in 20. One fact can sum up the whole man; I do think highly of that man. Much love for 20 more

Lynda@LyndaHere 11 Mar alanthomasdoyle You had a better choice. Maybe next time you'll take it. Happy 20th, Awesome Alan.

Lynda@LyndaHere 10 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Awesome. Always, Alan. Just a bit more awesome tonight

Lynda@LyndaHere10 Mar @alanthomasdoyle I am so excited about tonight. You've got to be over the moon. 20 Friggin' Years. That is Awesome, Always-Awesome Alan.

Lynda@LyndaHere10 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea XX Tour Merch @ Victoria. Loved seeing solo CDs & band CDs @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean pic.twitter.com/wxFN2sdunp

Lynda@LyndaHere 10 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Yes, it is. And you are going to be Amazing, Alan.

Lynda@LyndaHere 10 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle Hello, Always-Awesome You. That was a spectacular performance in Victoria. pic.twitter.com/KgiV5X7oIN

Lynda@LyndaHere 10 Mar .@paddyjoeboyle, @Great_Big_Sea go to Hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4pFZFPEssQ … … … @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean @krismacdrum @murrayfoster1

Lynda@LyndaHere 10 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea on YYJ stage w. @paddyjoeboyle & his Sweet Penelope Horn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR-SCp5J2Go … @alanthomasdoyle @greatbigsean @bobhallett

Lynda?@LyndaHere 10 Mar Highlight from last night's @Great_Big_Sea Victoria XX gig: @bobhallett & @paddyjoeboyle sizzle on Straight To Hell: pic.twitter.com/b9FL9iVWmL

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle 80 per cent of those 1st in the door just made a beeline to the merch. The rest are in the beer line. XX goin' up.

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar Victoria is a beautiful pain in the arse to get to. Just now in my hotel room, been working my way here since 7 am.

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Hah - what I'm going to enjoy are my first few moments of being Rocked tonight. Rink Rock Star! pic.twitter.com/vjnVlyFzXM

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar @alanthomasdoyle After your Wave Over Wave last night, I'm thinking of you as Alan "Abel" Doyle. Alan Able Doyle as well. Pleasure & Pain.

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar @alanthomasdoyle @paddyjoeboyle Cool! Young Man With A Horn. Penelope, perhaps?

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea, Wave Over Wave, full-band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8FpjQKrY8k … @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean @murrayfoster1 @krismacdrum

Lynda@LyndaHere 9 Mar 3 hours in my own bed. Woohoo! Starting right now...

Lynda@LyndaHere 8 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Yay, Alan. Awesome. And bonus points to @MurrayFoster1 for his support.

Lynda@LyndaHere 8 Mar Vancouver Orpheum Great Big Sea XX tickets for sale, face value ($203 CAD): 5th Row Right Centre aisle pair. Will meet @ venue to pick up.

Lynda@LyndaHere 8 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea 20th B'day Festivities, PDX. Let them eat cake & drink Old Black Rum!

@alanthomasdoyle @greatbigsean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj5QNfQqyRY …

Lynda@LyndaHere 8 Mar XX Day 2, woke up with Billy Peddle playing in my head. Day 3 was Heart Of Hearts. Day 4 is Whatta Ya At. And Take It Easy. Awesome.

Lynda@LyndaHere8 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Always a great crowd at the Aladdin. Always a great show too. Perfect match. Well done, all.

Lynda@LyndaHere 7 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Awesome, Alan. You are, you were. You all were and are. And no repeat of last night. Never. Promised. Now please rest.

Lynda@LyndaHere 7 Mar Debut of @Great_Big_Sea XX song: Pete Townshend, Let My Love Open The Door http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDbpDUK425g … @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean

Lynda@LyndaHere 7 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Rock Star Redux: Still the Sweetest Face. And the Hottest Hands. pic.twitter.com/aQR65NrAuw

Lynda@LyndaHere 7 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle Hello, Rock Star. pic.twitter.com/QRmqjdYIxU

Lynda@LyndaHere 7 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean @krismacdrum @murrayfoster1 Stompin Tom Connors tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKLe3DR3o2o … …

Lynda?@LyndaHere 6 Mar .@Great_Big_Sea @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean @murrayfoster1 @krismacdrum 'XX' marks the spot: pic.twitter.com/kdXFVBy0jv

Lynda@LyndaHere 6 Mar Last night was Home #1. Today, it's Home #2. Home #3 the day after tomorrow. Feels like I'm re-tracing my steps.

Lynda@LyndaHere 6 Mar @alanthomasdoyle You really do have the sweetest face on the planet. You should be told that every day of your life. pic.twitter.com/lCQhbguvfc

Lynda@LyndaHere 6 Mar Awesome live version of Billy Peddle, Great Big Sea, Anaheim 1st XX show @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @greatbigsean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xNnZwC2Hs … …

Lynda@LyndaHere 6 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle @greatbigsean @bobhallett @murrayfoster1 @krismacdrum "What Are You At?" Great Big Sea XX, Night 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrS9MX323b0 …

Lynda@LyndaHere 6 Mar @alanthomasdoyle @greatbigsean @bobhallett @MurrayFoster1 @krismacdrum and so are you. Awesome, that is. Truly an auspicious beginning.

Lynda@LyndaHere 5 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Awesomely well done, dear Alan. And there's a big line at the merch table - bonus. See you in SF.

Lynda@LyndaHere 5 Mar @alanthomasdoyle 10 minutes to XX! You are gonna be great!

Lynda@LyndaHere 5 Mar Lots of really cool new Great BIg Sea XX merch to buy. Including tour shirts with show dates. Got mine!

Lynda@LyndaHere 5 Mar @alanthomasdoyle They'll be right there on their XX-opening stage tonight. Especially the dear Boy on the left. Looking even better today.

Lynda@LyndaHere 4 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Was going to write tonight. Now going to write tomorrow morning. 'Twas the Night Before XX" will now be "Tis The Day Of..."

Lynda@LyndaHere 4 Mar @alanthomasdoyle You're looking great. Cool gig - bit of an odd set-up, but very cool. Thumbs up to XX Day One.

Lynda@LyndaHere 4 Mar .@alanthomasdoyle Day One - delayed flight, missed connection, now flying standby. And worth every bit of the effort.

Lynda@LyndaHere 3 Mar @alanthomasdoyle Sweet Dreams, Rock Star.

Lynda@LyndaHere 3 Mar @alanthomasdoyle You look Ready to Rock

Lyndahere And Celebrity Hackers...

Yesterday one of the Great Big Sea’s favourite family members Scott Grimes Twitter account was hacked. For those of you who do not know Scott Grimes he is a friend of Alan Doyle’s and Russell Crowe who collaborated on the Indoor Garden Parties and a couple of movies including Robin Hood, Winter’s Tale and the television series Republic of Doyle with Allan Hawco. Several months ago Alan Doyle and Sean McCann had their Twitter accounts hacked. They are one of hundreds of celebrities from around the world who have had their phones, computers or accounts like Twitter hacked. Just before Christmas one of my favourite actors Viggo Mortensen had had his phone hacked and pictures leak all over the Internet. I began to read about the hacking of celebrities by individual fans such the American Chaney to hacking groups called Hollywood Leaks.

In December an American man Chaney was convicted to ten years jail in a Federal prison for hacking into approximately 50 celebrities’ phones and email accounts. He was also ordered to pay approximately $66 000 in restitution. He hacked into a range of email, phones and computers where he found a range of information including photographs and personal details and then posted the information on the Internet where anyone could see them. Some of the details he gave to Internet sites. The victims included Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Christina Aguillera. Chaney told journalists he “was addicted to intrusion and didn’t know when to stop”. He said “the hacking started as curiosity and it just turned into just being, you become addicted to behind-the-scenes to what’s going on with these people you see on the big screen everyday” (as sited in Duke 2012). But this man was acting alone and is not the only hacker targeting celebrities. There are hacking groups called ‘Hollywood Leaks’ who are continually trying to get into celebrities private information. This group is distinct from the media organisations who continually hack celebrity’s accounts. There have many theories that celebrities also deliberately leak information to various media outlets for extra publicity.

On the 24 December 2012 another actor Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in Lord of the Rings) had his phone/computer hacked and photos distributed across the Internet. The much anticipate sequel to Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is due to be released on the 26 December. The pictures were published by an American magazine MediaMass who justified their actions by stating they were in the public interest to publish them. The photos were taken probably taken by the actor on a visit to the Lourve Museum in Paris earlier this month. They include photos of paintings by the French painter Ingres, German painter, Gregor Erhart, a statue by Gaul, and Egyptian nude porcelain doll and a picture of his dog playing with a tennis ball after recovering from surgery. The FBI is investigating the alleged hacking incident and other instances of celebrity phone and email hacking.

But it is not only images the hackers are after. In March 2011 two men used a computer to hack into Sony Music and steal hundreds of recordings of Micheal Jackson, Beyonce and others. They were accused of taking several thousand songs that were copyright and sell them on and distribute them on the Internet. “James Marks and James McCormick pleaded guilty to hacking into US serves owned by Sony Music Entertainment and downloading almost 8,000 files. They received six-month sentences, suspended for one year, and were each ordered to compete 100 hours of community service. Marks, 27 is from Daventry, Northamptonshire, and McCormick, 26 is from Blackpool. The two men used their home computers to exploit a weakness in Sony’s servers, hunting – they claimed for evidence that some Jackson’s posthumous releases were sung by an impersonator” (Michaels 2013).

This is an interesting article from The Observer Saturday 11 September 2011 by Paul Harrison about hacktivism in Hollywood. (No copyright infringement intended)

Behind the feelgood story lines and happy endings of even the most bland Hollywood movies lurks a formidable PR machine that exerts a grip on every aspect of a film's life. From keeping scripts secret, to vetting press interviews with stars, setting embargoes and filming on closed sets, big Hollywood studios jealously guard their projects. After all, hundreds of millions of dollars are often at stake. One slip-up can kill a movie – and a dead movie usually takes a few careers with it.

So it is with growing horror that the movie business and its galaxy of celebrities have witnessed the emergence of a group of computer "hacktivists" dedicated to cracking open Hollywood's most valuable secrets and releasing them for all the world to see. Calling themselves Hollywood Leaks, the anonymous hackers have stolen scripts for coming movies, revealed nude photos of celebrities and placed their personal phone numbers and email contacts on the internet for all the world to see.

Its victims have included action star Gerard Butler, whose email address was put online, and Miley Cyrus, the singer and actress, whose personal details were also hacked. The script from the upcoming Tom Cruise movie Rock of Ages, also starring Malin Akerman and Julianne Hough, was leaked. As have scripts for the forthcoming Footloose remake and eagerly awaited crime drama Gangster Squad, whose roster of big names includes Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling.

Hollywood Leaks has sprung from the underground world of computer hacking that has already produced groups like Anonymous and LulzSec, whose targets have ranged from the CIA and the US Senate to companies such as PayPal and Bank of America. Those attacks often have a freedom of information agenda with a political slant, but Hollywood Leaks appears different. It just wants to destroy the carefully constructed Hollywood information system that has grown up since the movie business first exploded into popular culture in the 1920s. Using gaping holes in the major studios' computer networks, Hollywood Leaks is on a mission to upset an entire industry's way of doing business. "Once they get into someone's network they can do a lot of damage," said Mark Russinovich, a cyber security expert and technical fellow at software giant Microsoft. The implications are potentially huge. Just imagine if the plot twists for The Sixth Sense, The Crying Game or The Usual Suspects had been leaked months before release, possibly destroying their box-office potential. "Studios invest $100m or $200m in a movie and losing that could screw up a major corporation," said Richard Laermer, a celebrity expert and PR consultant.

Hollywood studios often force journalists and reviewers to sign ferocious non-disclosure agreements when they get sneak previews of upcoming movies. They ban certain questions and declare personal lives off-limits. They take elaborate security precautions to ensure no pertinent details leak out ahead of time. And when they do want to hint at a movie's content – such as with a big special effects feature like James Cameron's Avatar – it is by tightly controlled releases of photographs or clips that they themselves control.

Gayl Murphy, a Los Angeles-based celebrity interviewer, knows all about the system first-hand. She recalled being sent DVDs that would only play on a certain DVD player, which she was also sent. Viewing them on any other device, or making copies, was rendered impossible. "These guys are very serious about what they do," Murphy said.

They have been from the very beginning. As the studio system emerged in the 1920s, a new breed of film executives discovered huge monetary potential in their films, stars and even composers and costume designers. By the heyday of the 1930s and 1940s, studios bound their big-name actors and directors with tight contracts that virtually made them a property of the company. It was almost total control. Stars promoted products because they were told to, appeared in magazines next to copy written by studio PRs and even dated other stars as instructed.

"Studios controlled everything and everyone, as best as any corporation could control individuals. Contracts ruled everything and if you were under contract to a studio you were, in essence, owned by them and you did what you were told to do," said Professor Marsha Orgeron, a film history expert at North Carolina State University.

Though the power of the studios waned as the contract system broke down, the basic philosophy of strict message control has remained. Big-budget movies became huge money-making machines, often with secretive commercial tie-ins, and with a strictly controlled PR message. After all, a movie is not like any other product. You buy a fridge or a car or a TV because it will work. You buy a movie ticket to be told a story, and knowing the ending ahead of time, or having seen its stars' personal details splashed all over the internet, shatters the carefully constructed aura of the experience. "The difference between Hollywood and other industries has to do with the monetary stakes, which are extraordinary, and the nature of the product," said Orgeron. Hollywood Leaks now threatens the mystique and mythology at the very heart of the movie business and thus also puts at risk its huge profits.

Of course, the dirty secret of Hollywood studios and the most powerful PR agencies is that they often love a good leak. While stars may rail against the paparazzi, the fact remains that many PRs – and some of their more desperate clients – will happily tip off a photographer. There is a reason why celebrities return to the same restaurants and clubs night after night, and it is not out of a desire for secrecy. Indeed little has changed since the old days. Nothing creates more publicity – especially with a romantic comedy – than the rumour that the leading stars may have had an on-set romance. Such leaks, often sanctioned by the studio and frequently not true, are good for business. "There is no activity that Hollywood marketing executives will not do," said Laermer. So leaks themselves are not always bad. But what is terrifying for movie executives, PR agents, celebrities and studio heads is the lack of control that Hollywood Leaks is suddenly bringing into the process. Injecting an anarchic hacker philosophy into one of the most carefully managed industries in the world is a nightmare come true. "That is going to drive the studios insane," said Murphy.

Which, for Hollywood Leaks, is the point. The unknown hackers behind the group have sprung from a hacktivist culture that celebrates the concept of "lulz", which is tech slang for amoral mischief and creating havoc outside normal societal boundaries. They would defend their actions as an anarchic statement. Critics would see it as simple cruelty or criminality driven by a culture dominated by antisocial geeks. On the group's Twitter feed, updates urge followers to call the celebrity phone numbers released. "People can't take a damn joke. We do it for the lulz," reads one tweet. The motto of the group is: "We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect us."

In online exchanges with tech journalists investigating the group, some of Hollywood Leaks' members have done little to cast light on its simple chaos-sowing agenda. "We're doin' it cause we can, cause it's fun, cause why not? Fuck Hollywood – fuck that vapid greedy bullshit," one hacktivist, going by the name Dapper, told Fruzsina Eordogh, a writer for the Daily Dot online news website.

Eordogh said her contact with three members of the group had persuaded her that they had little agenda beyond having fun and causing trouble. "They view this hacking of Hollywood as somewhat benign. Not very harmful. They don't feel they are going to get in trouble with anyone," Eordogh told the Observer. That might be naive. Hollywood studios employ some of the wealthiest and most ruthless lawyers in the world. But what appears certain is that the internet, which has already undermined the news business, publishing and the music industry, is now knocking on the door of Hollywood too. Maybe even kicking it down. In its own way it is a classic Hollywood plot twist, though one that some experts think the business should have seen coming.

"They thought that it could never happen to them," said Murphy.

References

Crabtree P. Viggo Mortensen ‘Nude Photos Leaded Online’ viewed 23 December 2012

Gregg M. ‘How Are Celebrity Cellphones Hacked’ at Huffintonpost.com viewed 23 December 2012.

Harris, P 2011 ‘Hollywood Leaks strikes fear into film industry bosses’ – The Guardian at www.guardian.co.uk 11 September 2011 viewed 23 March 2013

Michaels, Sean, 2013, ‘Hackers who stole Michael Jackson’s songs avoid jail’ The Guardian January 13 2013 viewed on January 20 2013.

Lyndahere, Bootlegging, Vidding And Fanvids...

I was exploring fan sites on the internet and came across a new site Fanlore a webpage dedicated to all kinds of fandom. On that page I found a new word and another fan culture based around videos, music and images vidding or fan vid. Fanlore defines vidding “as the act or process of creating a fan-oriented vid or fanvid using live action TV or movie footage set to music”.On Youtube there is a video by cbcradio3 of Heart of Hearts filmed at the first concert of Great Big Sea XX on the 4 Novemember 2012 in Toronto. Sean McCann talks about their new song “Heart of Hearts” and how they made a new video out of old videos. The video is on their official video site on Youtube. The main difference between Great Big Sea’s video Heart of Hearts and that of vidders is they own the copyright to the old videos and the new music being used in the new video clip. The Great Big Sea video is a look at the last twenty years and makes references to the history of Great Big Sea music videos which fans will know. So what is the difference between bootlegging, vidding and fanvids.

I have found an interesting article that interviews a well known vidder Luminosity with the New York Magazine by email who explains the basics of vidding, the legal issues, the recognition of vidding as an art form, how they became involved and how the vidding community works from their point of view. The vidder who gave this interview wished to remain anonymous because of the threat of legal action against her by the copyright owners of particular material she uses.

The Vidder Luminosity upgrades fan video. Published Nov 12, 2007 in the New York Magazine. (no copyright infringement intended)

Luminosity is the best fan that shows like Friday Night Lights, Highlander, Farscape, and Buffy ever had—but she can’t use her real name in this interview for fear that their producers will sue her. As a vidder—a director of passionate tributes and critiques of her favorite shows—Luminosity samples video in order to remix and reinterpret it, bending source material to her own purposes. “Much of contemporary remix culture falls back on parody,” explains MIT professor Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, “but these fan videos seek to convey the emotional intensity [that they feel]. They communicate more if you know the shows on which they are based but they can stand alone as mood poems or character sketches.” We emailed with Luminosity about her meticulously crafted videos, including Women’s Work, her loving critique of violence in Supernatural, and Vogue/300, her hysterical riff on those hunky Spartans.

I think many of our readers won’t be familiar with “vidding.” Could you tell me what it is?

The quick and easy description: Vids are fan-made music videos. We create them using scenes taken from our favorite TV shows and movies, pairing them with a particular piece of music and imposing our own video-editing choices and style. The motivation for a lot of us is to convey something deeply felt about the show.

Most people became aware of vidding with YouTube, but there’s a longer history to it, right?

Vidding started in 1975 with Kandy Fong, a Star Trek fan, who made the first ever vid, at a convention, by setting a slideshow to music. Almost as soon as VCRs became available, fans started using them to make vids, which were shown mainly at fan conventions or passed around on tape by mail. Computers and the Internet have made it a lot easier both to make vids and to share them—now everyone wants to make things like vids. Vidding is not a static art form. It is subject to waves and schools, just like any other art. It may have started with parody, but now it has progressed, I think, into modern and postmodern interpretations of the source.

Women done more vidding than men historically.

Yes! Everyone’s always surprised when I tell them this, but most vidders are women; then again, film editing was historically a female job. There are maybe five men who attend the primary annual vidding convention.

TV and film are still dominated by male creators behind the camera. Is this part of what you’re reacting to?

Vidding is one of the central parts of media fandom, the creative responses of initially mostly female fans to TV shows and films. So, yes, at its very core, our entire history is tied into talking back to male creators, teasing out for ourselves and telling the stories we don’t get otherwise. But when all said and done, the gender of the creator(s) isn’t that important to me. What’s important is how I change it.

I don’t know much about you, in part because you don’t use your real name.

I’ve been “Luminosity” since Fidonet and Echonet back in the eighties, and pseudonyms are very common on the Internet; but yes, there is some concern about copyright issues. But when I make a Buffy vid, no one is going to mistake me for Joss Whedon. If anything, vids provide free advertising. I wish the industry would join us in the 21st century. As we speak, a group of fans are putting together a new nonprofit, the Organization for Transformative Works, which will be working to help protect the fair-use rights of fan creators to make vids and fanfic.

How did you get started?

I saw a vid for the first time in 1996, I hit critical mass in 2000, bought the hardware and software, found a couple of generous and talented vidders to point me in the right direction, and I was off and running. The first show that inspired me to vid was Highlander: The Series. I was emotionally invested in the fandom and the show, it had viable canonical continuity, and it was beautifully filmed. Not everyone vids for the same reasons that I vid. I vid for the Big Emotion.

How do vidders find one another?

I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you—no, seriously, this is a highly contested issue within the vidding community. Even though we believe our work is legitimate and transformative art, a lot of vidders prefer to stay out of the spotlight until the legal situation is clearer. More recently, though, some vidders have decided to go a bit more public, and so you can find my work and that of some other vidders on video streaming sites like Imeem or Stage6.

Your biggest work is Scooby Road, which remixes scenes from Buffy and scores them to the entire Beatles Abbey Road LP.

Before Scooby Road, it was as if we vidders were making “singles.” No one had made an album-length “concept vid” yet. I love the Beatles, and I felt that making every song in an album relate in some way to Buffy was a challenge I could meet.

What filmmakers and TV directors do you most admire?

My favorites were the film noir directors of the forties and fifties— Orson Welles, Jacques Tourneur. On TV, I admire David Nutter, Kim and Kelly Manners, and Joss Whedon. While I admire directors from afar, I study cinematographers and film editors up close. I have a black-and-white vid in the works because I want to learn to “see” in black and white, the way those cinematographers like John Seitz and Stanley Cortez did in the forties.

We’re featuring Vogue/300. There have been many riffs on the film 300—one set to “It’s Raining Men”—and lots of parodies. But yours is on a whole other level.

It was my chance to do a bait and switch, and turn the “male gaze” back onto itself. I wanted to allude to the graphic novel, so I split the screens and tinted them with flat color. The movie was visually stunning as well, and it’s always fun to work with pretty source.

We’re also featuring Women’s Work, which seems like a fairly severe critique of the treatment of women on Supernatural. But its beauty also seems to complicate the critique. You told me your heart “belongs to Dean and Sam.”

Women’s Work is a critique of the eroticization of the violence done to women in all media, not just Supernatural. Women are sexually assaulted, murdered, and then laid out in artistic tableaux, chopped into pretty, bloody pieces. They usually further the plot, but they’re hardly ever a part of the plot. We wanted to point out that in order for us to love a TV show—and we do—we have to set this horrible part of it aside. A lot. Often. Sisabet [the co-vidder of the project] and I believe that we could have made this vid using almost any show, from Heroes to CSI, but we are fans of Supernatural. We care so much about a show that we want share it, make an argument, highlight a character or situation, lampoon something, evoke a mood. I’ve also made four other Supernatural vids that celebrate the show, the arc, the relationship between the brothers and the genre itself.

Lyndahere And More Music Piracy...

Lyndahere (@lyndahere) this morning tweeted her 5666 tweet on Twitter. The majority of them being to Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea. 5666 was a Retweet of Alan Doyle’s viewing details of the documentary Boy on Bridge off his Twitter page. Alan Doyle wrote “Hey all. I should have some news about upcoming chances to see Boy on Bridge Documentary Film. Keep you posted.” Lyndahere and her friend Christinatownie will be there with recording facilities to pirate the documentary and load it up on to her Youtube site before the credits have rolled or if at a special screening bootlegged. 

Lyndahere wrote to @alanthomasdoyle “Wonderful news, Alan. Finally – after a long wait. We shall to ensure that @christinatownie has/gets Movie Network”. On the previous tweet @lyndahere wrote “If it was unkind, it doesn’t matter – if it’s also true – that’s not good enough. It was unkind. Add capitulated to chastened”. I had to look those words up but yes her actions of pirating and bootlegging are massively unkind. The means doesn’t justify the end.

The following article was from Torrent Freak, a wonderful site for discussing issues about the impact of music piracy on music. It is particularly relevant to Lyndahere when it discusses the cannibalisation of music sales and music videos which her bootlegging and music piracy does.

I found this interesting definition of cannibalism in relation to sales of any product. "In marketing, situation where the sales of a new (introduced as an extension of an established brand) or differently branded product eat into the sales of other products within the same line. If the total sales revenue of that product line increases, then the line extension is justifiable. However the danger of weakening the main brand remains" from http://www.businessdictionary.com.

“Is Youtube killing music piracy” uploaded on June 11 2011. (no copyright infringement intended).

For years the top record label executives have been claiming that it’s impossible to compete with free, but YouTube is proving them wrong. With billions of views every month the major record labels are making millions by sharing their music for free. For many people YouTube takes away the incentive to ‘pirate,’ but at the same time it may also cannibalise legal music sales.

The music industry has witnessed some dramatic changes in recent years, even when piracy is left out of the picture. In just a decade the Internet and the MP3 revolution have redefined people’s music consumption habits. 
 

We’ve previously documented how people moved from buying albums to buying singles. But there’s another big change that occurred, one that may have an even bigger impact on the music industry as a whole; YouTube and other ‘free’ music sources.

If we go back in time 5 or 6 years, people had only one option if they wanted to listen to their favorite artists online without paying for the pleasure. That one option was piracy. Today the public has a wide variety of legal options, and the medium of choice for most people appears to be YouTube.

Although true music aficionados are hard to please, the majority of the public appreciates the option of listening to their favorite tunes for free on YouTube. Google is not complaining either, as music videos are a substantial revenue source for them.

But what about the record labels, are they happy too? This is not an easy question to answer, but we’re going to give it a try.

Revenue wise YouTube and Vevo have be come a serious revenue source. The major labels haven’t been very open about their revenue sharing deal, but EMI Music chief financial officer Paul Kahn said during the LimeWire trial that his label gets half a penny for each YouTube play.

Half a penny may not sound much, but with billions of views it adds up quickly.

If we look at David Guetta, one of EMI’s top artists, we see that his YouTube uploads were viewed 308,000,000 times over the past 12 months. That means $1,540,000 in revenue, for only one artist. 
Just as a comparison, Guetta and EMI have to sell more than 2 million singles to earn that much from ‘paid’ music.

In their latest report music industry group IFPI write that at the end of last year the major record labels were getting 1.7 billion views a month, and this number is rising rapidly. In the last 12 months alone Universal Music tripled the number of YouTube views from 2.3 billion May last year to nearly 7 billion today.

Staggering numbers that bring in tens of millions of dollars at least, with free music.

In part YouTube’s success goes at the expense of music piracy. With free music on YouTube a large group of people have less incentive to pirate, and indeed, the number of people who share music on BitTorrent appears to be slowing because of these and other alternatives.

This doesn’t mean that music sharing BitTorrent communities are fading away, but the more casual downloaders have found an alternative in YouTube and other streaming services.

That’s great news for the labels right? Well not so fast. 

All those billions of views on YouTube each month may have slowed piracy down, but if we have to follow the logic of the music industry then actual sales of recorded music would also be affected.

After all, for years they’ve claimed that “free music” on pirate sites caused billions in losses. Free music on YouTube should have a similar effect.

The big question is of course whether the revenue from YouTube can match these alleged losses or not. Not an easy question to answer, but these are crucial factors that define how the major record labels will fare in the coming years, probably even more so than piracy.

TorrentFreak asked both the RIAA and BPI to share their thoughts on how YouTube could affect music sales, but both unfortunately withheld their comments. 

This leaves us with the conclusion that, unlike many record label execs have argued in the past, you can compete with free. You can even compete with piracy. Whether the net result is going to be a positive one has yet to be seen, but YouTube is taking up a larger chunk of the record label revenues each year.

Lyndahere, Lynda Elstad And Facebook...

Since I wrote this post LyndaHere has changed her name on her Facebook page from Elstad to Here to match her Twitter account. The copy of her photo on this page from her Twitter page has been blocked. (29 December 2013). 

On the 28 October 2012 I posted a post titled “@lyndahere and social networking (Facebook)”. A copy of the post is below and contained some comments from her Twitter page, her use of social media (Youtube and Facebook) and her reviews of concerts she did not attend. I personally don’t use Facebook and very rarely visit Great Big Sea or Alan Doyle’s official pages so I don’t know anything about their use. It is something about people knowing too much information about someone. I often hear about fights on the public transport where I live about things people have written on Facebook, people writing inappropriate things about what happens at their work and getting caught out skipping work. More stories about people spending more time on social media and Facebook than with their real friends in real life. So I don’t use it.

I had been researching on the Internet when I found another blog by a Great Big Sea fan who provided links to videos by a ‘superfan’ who goes by the name Lynda Elstad and is also known as @Lyndahere on Twitter. There is no reference to her Facebook page and no mention of the name Lynda Elstad on Twitter. @lyndahere established a Facebook page under the name of Lynda Elstad in 2007 and posts on a regular basis but not in same amount as on Twitter. It wasn’t difficult to locate her page on Facebook under that name. Her Facebook page has a different photo and a different name than Twitter and a whole different feel and approach than either her Twitter page, blog or Youtube pages. There is still interaction and posts to Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea. They seem to respond more using Twitter.

I was disturbed by two things. First how many photos and videos of Alan Doyle there were and the number of people who found it acceptable for someone to follow another person around from place to place. I understand how people watching a link on Youtube might not know just how many videos are up there and many Tweets she sends him and Great Big Sea on Twitter, but on Facebook the photos and videos of Alan Doyle and some of Great Big Sea are all laid out there. I am not a psychologist or expert on fandom but it just doesn’t seem normal to spend so much time in the company of someone whose interest isn’t returned. If someone had that number of pictures up on their boyfriend or children people would unfriend/unlike someone.

There are bootlegged videos, photos at concerts and even photographs taken of the official Testify video made with Russell Crowe. There is a clear copyright sign on that video. Then there is the trade in tickets. She seems to have bought an awful lot of tickets to concerts in the presales of Great Big Sea XX that she isn’t using and then reselling them via Twitter and Facebook. While she states they are sold at face value they might be sold at a profit. She would only need one or two tickets per show to be sold at $200 profit to make enough money to cover the majority of expenses of her tour. Then there is the fact that she buys tickets in pre sales at the expense of someone who would like to be seated in a good position.

The other interesting thing is here is a person who has no issues with sharing and stealing the work and images of Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle.

@lyndahere and social media (facebook) 28 October 2012

@lyndahere “The Tweetstream swiftly sweeps away both faery sandcastles & reeking shite pile. This is good – the shit piles far outnumber the sandcastles” 11October 2012 after another person disapproving of her activities on social media.

I have written a lot about her use of Youtube and Twitter but not of Facebook. On a recent blog post “Shines Like Diamonds” on her webpage Between the Rock and a Hardplace @lyndahere wrote “I have also been sharing them on Facebook and Twitter a few each day”. I do not read her posts very often due to their extensive nature, their personal nature and well to be honest I am not really that interested in knowing that “her arms were just too weary to hold up the cameras when it was time for them to take their turns” or if she is stuck in a hotel somewhere in America or Canada with a poor internet connection .

I don’t like reading large chunks of Alan Doyle’s blog posts cut and pasted from his site. I will read them directly from his site like most fans do. Better not to write anything than show no respect for the reader or the person whose words they are. “I will write my own words (lesser) about this Perfect Concert soon enough”. She is a bootlegger illegally filming without the permission of those involved. If the musicians wanted their event recorded they would have paid a professional or found a professional willing to volunteer.

On the same post @lyndahere wrote “those who are too impatient to wait can see each video appear (at a snails pace) on my Youtube page”. It is truly unfortunate she believes her videos (and her words and experiences) are an essential part of our lives like breathing if we are to live happy and successful lives. Most adults are disappointed yet able to cope on missing out on an experience or event in life they wanted to attend yet couldn’t make. It makes the next opportunity as @lyndahere would say “sweeter”. A successful life is of course one of balance between self, family, community, work and fun.

Her social media use is full of contractions. For example, on her Between the Rock and a Hardplace blog site @lyndahere reviewed Alan Doyle’s performance at a launch of the Bluenose 2 in September. She missed the connections for her flight and as result did not attend the event. @lyndahere was almost dismissive of the performance in her review on her blog because she wasn’t there. As she watched the show on the Internet in a hotel room somewhere in Canada she wrote tweets on Twitter criticising Air Canada, Alan Doyle and the crowd some of which were later deleted. There was also a sense of desperation in missing out on a performance of Alan Doyle.

@lyndahere “Watching the feed. I think you need to wake them up & warm them up. How about Testify? I’ve Seen A Little. C’mon Alan” 29 September 2012

But amongst all those words from @lyndahere there will be actions that promote further investigation like how does this social media giant work with the music industry to promote music. How does @lyndahere and other fans use Facebook as distinct from Twitter and other social media to interact with celebrities and musicians? And how do celebrities and musicians use it to promote themselves? The obvious place to start is the book Accidental Billionaires and the film Social Network. Of course I will have to set up an account under a fake name because I have been threatened and my Internet Service Providers contacted.

After this blog post was published @lyndahere wrote “Not impressed with the implications of that “Create No Expectations, Risk No Disappointment Approach Yeah & “Forgo Rewards of Love” too. 29 October 2012. Putting your ideas or creativity out for the public to critically evaluate is hard to do and one I have experience at. When my ideas and creativity are acknowledged and rewarded with high praise by my peers and others it is very rewarding indeed. When they are not then of course I am disappointed yet learn from that to make my work better. But no proper acknowledgement and no acknowledgement from respected peers is not just disappointing but devastating indeed after years of trying. The healthy thing to do is to give up, move on and do something else. Changing goals and being able to adapt is part of growing whether it is within your chosen activity or moving on to a completely different one.

To be continued…

Lyndahere, Lynda Elstad, The Ottawa Blues Fest And The Ottawa Citizen...

While researching the Internet under the name of  LyndaHere ie Lynda Elstad I found this article from the Ottawa Blues Fest in the Ottawa Citizen she attended with her friend Dr Christina Templeton from Newfoundland. She had made comments to the journalist about the festival and how she had come from Seattle especially. BULLSHIT. If I remember correctly she had been following Alan Doyle throughout the year on his solo tour and was heading to Newfoundland for a range of festivals in July. I can image the reaction of the journalist to ‘I spend my time stalking Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea’.

Bluesfest hits electronic note Sweltering weather doesn't deter music-lovers on opening night by Alicja Siekierska, Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, July 05, 2012

Thousands of people braved the summer heat on Wednesday evening and made their way to LeBreton Flats Park for the opening night of RBC Royal Bank Ottawa Bluesfest.

The crowds gathered around the five stages spread out around the grounds under the sweltering sun, all to see big-name performers such as Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle, Fishbone, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and AWOLNATION.

However, it seemed as if a majority of the spectators on opening night were there to see world-renowned DJ and electronic music producer Tiesto.

"He's one of the best electro performers in the world," said Justin Chieffallo, who waited in the heat for almost an hour before the gates to the festival opened at 5 p.m. "He's amazing. I've been waiting for months to see him."

Tiesto and Grammy Award-winning Skrillex are the headliners representing the electronic genre at Bluesfest, which this year is featuring a larger portion of electronic dance music in its lineup than ever before.

Based on the size of the audience in front of the main stage to see Tiesto, people are happy about it.

"Bluesfest has always had a diverse range of acts," said Theresa Dorody, one of those waiting for the show to begin. "Tiesto, and really all the electronic performers, are great additions to the lineup."

"It's an interesting mix to-night," said Linda Elstad, who travelled from Seattle to check out the Ottawa festival. "On one stage you have Alan Doyle performing. Right next to him is Tiesto, and around the corner you have Billy Bragg."

"There's something for everyone to see," said Christina Templeton, one of the first people to arrive in front of the stage where Doyle was to perform.

Although they appeared to be outnumbered, there were also many people disappointed with the electronic lineup.

"The festival is catering more to the younger generation, more than those who work hard for our money to come to the festival," Ste-phanee Walker-Jolly said.

"Where are the big star names?" Hugh Jolly said. "Previous years have had much bigger names performing at Bluesfest."

Jolly also said organizers needed to try to keep the blues in Bluesfest.

"Personally, I don't think Bluesfest is the place for electronic music."

The lineup isn't the only thing at Bluesfest that has gone electronic. This year marks the first time the festival has used state-of-the-art wristbands for entry, ditching the paper-ticket system.

The wristbands contain tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips. Organizers say they are supposed to make it quicker and easier for concert goers to enter the festival grounds.

In previous years, there have been long lines of people waiting just to enter the festival grounds. On Wednesday evening, though, that wasn't an issue.

However, there was one minor bump in the road.

Those who purchased Empire Grill Clubhouse Pass-ports, at a cost of $575, did not receive wristbands in time for the concert. Instead, volunteers will be at each festival entrance with hand-held de-vices to scan the paper pass-ports.

The weather for the next week of Bluesfest is expected to be hot and humid, with temperatures reaching the mid-30s.